February 12—A CNN analysis finds Biden struggling to recreate his winning 2020 coalition.

February 8—Far right factions in Congress have made progress on major issues impossible, with Ukraine aid and the border crisis in the balance.

February 10, 2024—Special counsel Robert Hur has announced that the Justice Department will not be bringing criminal charges against President Biden in relation to the improper handling of classified documents, citing the President's cooperation with investigators and the difficulty of obtaining a conviction on the facts at hand.

February 8—The Biden administration's EPA has announced new, stricter standard for particulate pollution from car exhaust and industrial sources. The standards are projected to prevent 800,000 asthma attacks and 4,500 premature deaths by 2032, according to EPA administrato Michael Regan.

February 7—A new study out of Harvard University highlights the pressure the nation's crisis of affordable housing is placing on renters.

February 5—The granddaddy of corporate welfare in the United States is farm aid. Congressional Democrats are pushing to make sure climate-friendly measures are part of this year's bill.

February 2, 2024—Mega corporations Uber, Lift and others are spearheading a referendum effort in Massachusetts to defeat the legislature's plan to provide so-called "gig" workers, such as Uber and Lift drivers, with the standard protections enjoyed by other working Americans.

February 2, 2024—One of American democracy's greatest flaws is the outsized influence it allows to people and organizations with large amounts of cash. A major flaw in America's self-description as a merit-based society is the creation of inter-generational dynasties of wealth through inheritance. These two toxic elements, along with a large dose of cynicism, combine in Reuters' report that Timothy Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, has donated $10 million to the PAC supporting RFK Jr's presidential run: not because Mellon, a Trump supporter, wants the dark horse candidate to win, but because he calculates that a strong Kennedy race will siphon votes from Biden.

January 31, 2024—In a major win for police accountability, the New York City Council has passed, over Mayor Eric Adams' veto, the How Many Stops Act. The new law, which will require officers to document all investigative stops, including both the purpose of the stop and the age, gender and race of the person detained, will be a vital tool in evaluating the legality of police stops. New York City, under its "broken windows" policing model of the 2000s, was notorious for hundreds of thousands of unjustified "stops" and "frisks," with implications of racial profiling (see, on this site, "Terry v Ohio, Stop & Frisk, and the Making of the American Police State").

January 21, 2024—21.3 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) health plans in this year's open enrollment season, including 5 million first-time enrollees, signaling the growing importance of this key plank in American social democracy.

January 18—Don't throw out the books yet! A new study from researchers at Columbia Teachers College has concluded that students learn better using paper books as opposed to digital screens.

January 18—An open letter from over 250 billionaires and millionaires to the world leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos demands that governments begin to tax the exorbitant fortunes accumulated by the super-rich in recent decades, citing the need to combat "economic, societal and ecological" instability (Guardian article). A related piece from the Social Europe site highlights the distorting effect of large fortunes both in the marketplace and in our democracies.

January 16—Speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' annual meeting in Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen lauded the robust performance of the U.S. economy, which she said has vindicated spending decisions made by the President Joe Biden.

January 17—U.S. Secretary of State has reiterated the Biden administration's position that a Palestinian state will be an indispensable part of achieving peace in the Middle East.

January 16—Americans will have to get used to fellow customers packing heat while buying their stamps, thanks to a January 15 ruling by Trump-appointed federal District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, following recent Supreme Court rullings on the 2nd Amendment. Much social progress in the United States in coming years will depend upon dismantling the Trump federal court system, including the Supreme Court.